Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 18 Jun 1999 03:27:59 -0700 | From | "H. Peter Anvin" <> | Subject | Re: UUIDs (and devfs and major/minor numbers) |
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Alan Cox wrote: > > > It basically means you have started in the wrong end of the problem. > > There is a need for Linux do develop a decent device driver management; > > unfortunately devfs is a hack to patch it rather than tacking the > > admittedly hard problem. > > I don't think you can call it a hack. There are two ways of handling > dynamic devices > > 1. The kernel gives userspace info and userspace builds a /dev. > > 2. The kernel builds a /dev > > #2 is devfs > #1 is devfs with a script walking it. > > You can actually rip out chunks of devfs for #2 but the hooks you need to build > the information database happen to be exactly the ones you need for a full > devfs > > Alan
The problem is that neither the kernel nor user space have the full information; and I would argue that more of the information is in user space than in kernel space. Look at what PCMCIA does: not only does it build /dev in user space, but it also manages kernel modules. I would hate so see modprobe in the kernel, which would have been one way to implement kmod.
-hpa
-- "The user's computer downloads the ActiveX code and simulates a 'Blue Screen' crash, a generally benign event most users are familiar with and that would not necessarily arouse suspicions." -- Security exploit description on http://www.zks.net/p3/how.asp
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